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Students turn out in droves

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Also by Tom Schalmo:

Carolyn Martin to become next UW chancellor (May 28, 2008)

by Tom Schalmo

Friday, November 10, 2006

The United Council of University of Wisconsin Students is praising university students statewide, as the group announced Thursday that student turnout at polling stations Tuesday increased dramatically since four years ago.

On the Madison campus, voter turnout at the 10 student wards increased 66 percent, according to the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group. Other statistics showed in 2002, nearly 33 percent of registered voters on the UW-Madison campus voted in the gubernatorial election, while nearly 58 percent voted this year.

Taylour Johnson, organizing and communications director for UC, said the group's efforts were spread across the state but focused on UW campuses in Madison, Eau Claire, La Crosse, Oshkosh and Stevens Point.

UC has confirmed a correlation between the campuses they targeted and increased voter turnout. In addition to the Madison increase, preliminary statistics from the UC show student turnout was up 54 percent in Eau Claire, 49 percent in La Crosse, 52 percent in Oshkosh and 63 percent in Stevens Point.

Much of the UC's efforts focused on higher education and telling students this election would have a big impact on their college careers.

"This particular campaign was even more important, and students came out not just about voting but about voting for higher education to make sure we can hold our elected officials accountable for higher education," Johnson said.

Johnson added that tuition increases and student loan debt were two concerns of young voters this year.

Democrat Kathleen Vinehout defeated incumbent Republican state Sen. Ron Brown, R-Eau Claire. According to Johnson, she credited her win to the student turnout.

"[Vinehout] ran on a platform of improving higher education," Johnson said. "She attributed her victory specifically to high voter turnout."

Much of the increase in student vote, Johnson said, was due to the UC's "massive" voter registration drive, campaigning to "get out the vote," and efforts on Election Day itself.

"On Election Day, we were on the ground, letting students know that they could make a difference," Johnson said. "At Eau Claire and UW-Madison, we had voter shuttles getting students from campus or homes to their polling sites to vote."

Eli Lewien, chair of UW-Madison College Democrats, said the impressive student turnout will get politicians to pay closer attention to students.

"I'd say that the turnout was absolutely amazing," Lewien said. "Many passionate students who wanted to see change … and get the governor re-elected."

Lewien was also pleased that the state Senate "went blue," as the majority switched from Republicans to Democrats. But he expressed frustration over the passage of the marriage amendment.

"We're going to continue fighting into the future … to make sure discrimination isn't written into our state Constitution," Lewien said.

Meanwhile, Tom Wangard, who worked on the campaign of Republican J.B. Van Hollen, said students were part of the reason Van Hollen defeated Democrat Kathleen Falk in the race for attorney general.

"I think with J.B.'s campaign, we had a ton of students across the state working for him," Wangard said. "A lot of students turned out to vote for him."

Wangard added that despite several Republican losses Tuesday, Van Hollen's win shows that students really looked at the issues and were willing to cross party lines to vote for the Republican.

UC is a non-partisan grassroots and lobbying student association that represents 125,000 students at 21 UW campuses.

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Anonymous (November 10, 2006 @ 7:29am):

OH NO! The educated are voting. How will republicans ever get elected again? I'd like to invite all the students to Mega-Church on Sunday... yeah, that should do.

Anonymous (November 10, 2006 @ 11:06am):

[Much of the increase in student vote, Johnson said, was due to the UC's "massive" voter registration drive, campaigning to "get out the vote," and efforts on Election Day itself.]

Correlation does not mean causation. The United Council helped, but in NO MEANS was "much of the increase" due to their efforts. Give credit where it is due BH ...

Anonymous (November 10, 2006 @ 11:36am):

"UC has confirmed a correlation between the campuses they targeted and increased voter turnout."

Maybe that's because UC only chooses to work on campuses where they can leech off the efforts of established student groups who actually do something - like the College Democrats.

Anonymous (November 10, 2006 @ 1:44pm):

Actually, the increased turnout this year had nothing to do with UC. UC doesn't do anything productive, and is huge waste of seg fee money. The College Dems certainly played a role in the increased turnout.

But give credit where it's due. Fair Wisconsin is not only primarily responsible for the boosted turnout on college campuses, but it is also the reason that the Dems picked up the State Senate and more seats than expected in the State Assembly. If you want proof, you only need to look at how many students cast a vote on the amendment compared to the Governor's race: at UW-Madison, students cast more ballots on the ban than any other race, outpacing the Senate and Congressional races by around 1,000 votes.

Anonymous (November 11, 2006 @ 4:05pm):

Fair Wisconsin did a wonderful job as did the College Democrats. Let us not let this argument fall to who did a better job at mobilizing student voters. We need all students who fought against this ban College Democrats, College Republicans, Fair Wisconsinites, the Greens, and even the UC (please take a stance when necessary, this nonpartisan stuff is such a facade) to work hard to prevent discrimination. In many instances we are fighting for the same cause, but are blinded by our own prejudice of similar competition.

Anonymous (November 11, 2006 @ 4:18pm):

[But give credit where it's due. Fair Wisconsin is not only primarily responsible for the boosted turnout on college campuses, but it is also the reason that the Dems picked up the State Senate and more seats than expected in the State Assembly. If you want proof, you only need to look at how many students cast a vote on the amendment compared to the Governor's race: at UW-Madison, students cast more ballots on the ban than any other race, outpacing the Senate and Congressional races by around 1,000 votes.]

In this situation the student vote doesn't matter. If you look across the state MANY more people voted Democratic than they did NO. Only ONE county in the state voted strongly NO and that was Dane county. And the thousand vote claim is erroneus. You have to factor in that some Green Party and Republican members voted NO. In end Fair WI did a great job but was not "primarily" responsible for the major Democratic turnout.

Anonymous (November 12, 2006 @ 4:43pm):

There have been reports that the large student turnout at UW-Eau Claire was driven, in part, by professors offering extra credit to students who voted. This has been done on the UWEC campus in previous elections.

Has anyone heard of this happening at any other campuses in Wisconsin? I think it could easily be argued that this practice represents an illegal inducement to vote.

Any thoughts?